Generally, home appliances such as a refrigerator, a washing machine, a cooking device, an air conditioner, and a dish washer are constructed by a main body or a door made of a steel plate or a plastic material. The main body or the door may present various colors, feels, or patterns.
As the standard of living improves and according to consumers tastes, the home appliances have been advanced and differentiated by their designs. Especially in recent days, since design of the home appliances as well as the function has a great influence on purchase decision, the home appliances are being introduced with more diverse patterns, colors, and feelings.
Typically, a vinyl coated metal (VCM) steel printed with various colors and patterns or a tempered glass capable of presenting more various colors and feels with a luxurious image are used for an exterior member constituting the main body or the door of the home appliances. As the VCM steel or the tempered glass is used as the exterior member to partly or wholly form the exterior of the home appliances, the overall appearance of the home appliances can be advanced and differentiated.
In recent days, the tempered glass with various colors and patterns is used more and more as the exterior member forming at least a part of the main body or the door. Users care for the tempered glass due to its particular feeling, and various colors and patterns.
When using the tempered glass as the exterior member, colors and patterns are printed usually by silk screen. However, the process of the silk screen is not continuous nor quick. Furthermore, the silk screen is inefficient since it has a high defective rate while requiring high manufacturing cost.
To overcome such limits and improve the operability, there has been developed a method that prints colors and patterns on a film material by gravure printing and then adheres the printed film material to an exterior member made of tempered glass.